ABSTRACT
Jamaica is one of four major islands in the northern Caribbean that form the Greater Antilles. Ninety miles south of Cuba, it is the largest island of the former British West Indies, with an area of 4,411 square miles. The racial hierarchy of plantation society proved to be an enduring one. The dominant position of Whites and the importance of shades of color can be traced to Jamaica's colonial past; the role of some ethnic minority groups is a more recent development. Although a tiny ethnic group, Jamaican Jews today wield considerable power. Closely aligned with, but distinct from, the European and Afro-European elites, Jewish families control many of the larger economic enterprises. The religions of lower-class Blacks in Jamaica are rooted in slave society. While French and Spanish planters had their slaves converted, the British resisted, with the rationale that once a slave became a Christian, the planter could no longer consider him or her a slave.
